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Khayri McCray, 19, has been charged with second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. At a disposition last week, Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Wayne S. Timmerman scheduled pretrial proceedings for Sept. 6, with a possible trial starting the next week.

If convicted, McCray could be sentenced to life in prison.

Early on May 23, 2010, authorities say a fight broke out at a high school graduation party in Riverview. McCray, a Spoto High senior and football player, was hit in the face and left the party as chaperones kicked out brawlers.

He returned, authorities said, and fired a gun into a crowd outside the party. Bullets struck and killed 18-year-old Durant High senior Devante Lamar Dallas. Another partygoer, De Ron Richardson, now 21, and chaperone Jeffrey Thomas, now 42, were injured.

According to authorities, McCray jumped in a car and rode away from the party, allegedly boasting about shooting someone. The car took him to Progress Village Middle Magnet School, where investigators later retrieved a gun they linked to McCray.

McCray turned himself in the evening after the shooting. According to a St. Petersburg Times article, McCray looked into a television camera at the jail and said he didn't do it.

In the days that followed, rumors of retribution prompted increased security at Spoto and Durant High schools.

McCray was released from the Hillsborough County jail in January on $200,000 bail. His attorney, Alex Stavrou, says McCray has been living at home and continuing his education.

Stavrou recently claimed that a ballistics report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement showed the bullets from the party did not match the weapon connected to McCray.

Last week, McCray appeared before the judge, his family with him in the courtroom. They declined to speak with a Times reporter.